A totally stellar weekend was had. The usual building-blocks of good living were in full-effect: warm sun, nature in full bloom, and wild train nerd action. This was that first big weekend of summer-like weather, wire-to-wire Saturday and Sunday, and I had nothing keeping me home.
As often occurs, my only question is where to actually go. Usually I look at an atlas to see where I might find prime virgin mileage and take it from there. This weekend, I happened to check the list of rail lines that companies have petitioned the government to abandon, and I spotted (scroll down to the Exeter story) one of my favorite railroads - The San Joaquin Valley RR - was looking to offload a long stretch of prime and historic rail! While my sincere hope is that Johnny Law tells the railroad to go skip, that isn't something I can count on (usually they get big tax breaks to keep the line open - or the state rebuilds old lines for them - and then the companies bail after sucking what they can out of them.) The worst possible outcome is that the ICC lets the line die and I will have never even SEEN it. I just can't have it. I set my sights on documenting what I could of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad's line south of Exeter before it vanishes forever. I had no idea just how rich the payback would be.
Click onward, where you will be greeted by the Peek-A-Boo Locomotive, and my personal recreation of Johnny Cash's version of The Orange Blossom Special.
it sees you...
California was built by the railroads to a degree almost no place in America was built by them. Agriculture is still Cali's biggest industry, and where you have farming, you have railroads. This is as it should be, and Cali is still a train nerd's paradise.
One railroad in particular is responsible for providing rail service to the state, the Southern Pacific (known as The Espee among train nerds.) In fact, the SP was first-in in the building of rail lines throughout the West Coast and the Southwest. The SP is gone now, having been bought up by the nasty Union Pacific Railroad. The UP had already bought out other Cali rail assets (including The Feather River Route - the awesome Western Pacific railroad), so when they took over the SP, they had a fair amount of duplicate lines. The way it ultimately works is that when you have a handful of railroads going in and between the same big cities and towns, we call it "competition". When the government de-regulates and allows one or two railroads to buy up all the competing lines, it then is called "excess capacity". The SP's infrastructure has been fairly well decimated once they became "redundant", and much of the system that really built this state out has been reduced to a shell of its former self.
A big railroad like the UP operates under different economic rules than smaller railroads. They tend to make their money doing a high volume of long-haul trains rather than by going town to town and dropping off and picking up a few cars here and there. One of the prime factors driving that dynamic is the way in which the engineer's union has set up compensation. Long story short, a branch line of 75 miles that generates no long-haul business for one railroad, but generates switching and delivery fees is not something the UP can make money on, so they sell it to what is called a "short line", which generally has a different kind of contract with the crews. The short lines can keep the branch lines viable by doing local business and feeding the big lines like UP in bulk. In California, there are not many short lines bigger than the San Joaquin Valley Railroad (SJVRR), which has its HQ in Exeter - which will likely soon become "the end of the line" on this branch if the govt. allows them to abandon much of this line.
30 miles of a branch line is a hell of a lot of track, so for all intents and purposes, this line was going to go from being a big line to being a little one. As much railfanning as I do in Cali, I don't know the history of the lines here as well as I hope I will one day. In this case, I knew very little about the line they want to abandon, but my guess was that it was likely going to be a part of the old SP. As it turns out - I am, for the most part, right; but this line wasn't just some far-flung appendage that never saw any real railroading. Far from it. This line ran through some of the richest farm land in the state. In fact, the line was prime enough that one of the biggest competitors for the old SP - The Santa Fe (ATSF) - came in later and built a line almost parallel to it.
My lack of understanding of the local train nerd haps got me started in the wrong direction - sort of. No map I looked at - not even Google Maps - shows this old Santa Fe line at all. I had no idea it was there, and it was only by following a little spur through Exeter for a bit did I come to find that it even existed. Exeter has long been a railroad hotbed, but to find an old ATSF line pop up out of nowhere was quite intense. For example, I had long seen old SP "crossbuck" (the X for rail crossings) poles with the word SOUTHERN PACIFIC painted on it, but I have NEVER seen one that said Santa Fe. In my world, this is a big deal - especially as a Midwesterner; it's all exotic to me. I literally had the body's full chemical expression of glee wash over me once I figured out that I had stumbled upon a line I didn't know existed and a bit of ATSF swag I had never seen before still in place. I am twisted, but I wouldn't help it if I could.
My surprise at the doings in Exeter were sufficient that I called an audible and I decided to focus on the ATSF line instead of what obviously was SJVRR's main track out of town. I actually convinced myself that it HAD to be this old ATSF line they were gonna rip up. I just assumed the line had to also now be owned by the SJVRR and that they kept the redundant line in place because it had a few customers left, but now they just wanted to rip it out (maybe steel prices are up?), and this is what would be lost.
I now know that this isn't the line mentioned in the abandonment notice. I also know that the SJVRR line just west of it is a part of the line to be cut, but that segment is still going to be used. I missed nothing by focusing on the ATSF line, and in fact, I gained much. For starters, I found some more Santa Fe poles. Again: Awesome.
I am no expert on these matters, but to my surprise, the ATSF line wasn't actually in all that bad of shape. I saw no evidence that it has been used in any meaningful way in a long time, but by the same token, someone is keeping the line clear of brush, and the ties and track are all still in decent shape in most places. The rail is still connected by joints (most new rail is welded - no more clickty-clack y'all), and the joints are short, which usually would indicate that the track itself is old and not at all current technology. If they had customers on the line, I suppose they still could use it, but as it stood, it was just sittin' there rusting away. Any train that were to use the line probably would poke along at 10mph - if that.
For me, that would be no problem. The scenery is awesome. The line literally is flush to the base of the Sierra foothills right in the prime area for foothill beauty. I could gawk out the window at 10mph all day if it was in that kinda country. Naturally, I went through all my usual dork fantasy about winning the lottery and buying up old lines in Cali like this and trying to make a go of it, or maybe just poke along on my own little private engine. I am not joking even a little bit.
Both rail lines south of Exeter weren't straight north-south like all the backroads there are; the railroads were built diagonally to follow the natural alignment of the mountains, whereas the roads were built like a grid. This means I couldn't follow the line, but had to zig-zag all over the place to keep up with the line. In doing this I did eventually find a siding off the line that went into an orange crate manufacturing company, but alas, it didn't appear they were taking rail service. The gate along the line was locked, there was no car set out, and the switch looked rusty. As far as I saw on the line directly out of town, that was the only siding I saw. If they aren't taking cars, then there seemed little reason for the line to remain there. Sigh. A pity.
Eventually, as the line approached the city of Lindsay, it did have a slight grade into a cut in the foothills. That would be a prime train nerd spot for train photo - WOULD be, if there were any trains there to photograph. Because of this hill, I couldn't stay near the tracks until I actually got into "town", but for this minor slight, my efforts were well compensated...
It was well-compensated because, in town, still up and waiting for a train, was A WIG-WAG signal! This is cosmically awesome. Wig-Wag signals, where the bell rings in tandem with a single light that wags back and forth, are a thing of the distant past. There are almost none of these still around outside of railroad museums, and right through downtown Lindsay were several of them. There is a whole area of sub-study in train nerd-dom for the wig-wag signal. There are discussion groups that do nothing but follow the life-cycle of the few remaining wig-wags still around. I have seen a few in Cali here and there, but I have never seen one in use outside of a museum. So awesome. Even more awesome was the fact that the old SP and the ATSF line come very close to each other through town. They come close enough that in this little town in the middle of nowhere, there is a crossing with 5 tracks in place. Very awesome. As it turns out, on the old ATSF line I was following, there were a few orange-packing companies along the tracks in town, so other than the one siding I saw, these companies were pretty much the only reason that line might still be in existence. Again, I saw no cars at rest or in use. Sigh.
Seeing no cars this weekend was particularly bad news because the orange harvest is in full swing. If ever there were gonna be cars set out, it would be now, and I didn't see nuthin'. A very bad sign.
And without a doubt, if ever a place was gonna have a need, Lindsay is the place. That town was orange city baby. Had I had time, or inclination for that matter, I might have gone in to The Orange and had a screwdriver, but my drug is diesel y'all. Hot diesel; pushin' pistons...Rockin' and rollin' locos down the line, with the horns blaring in time. How they roll is how I roll. I huff creosote and generator smoke! Only dancin' I do is Gandy Dancin', and I do it in perfect synchro! Keep yer vodka mister! I am lookin' to REDUCE friction when I get traction! I live alone!
Sadly/Thankfully, there is no way to convey smell through the media in any meaningful way. In this case, I must say, the scent of orange blossoms in the air was so thick it felt like olfactory fog. I was in heaven. It smelled so good during the couple of hours I was in the grove; I really haven't experienced anything like that before. Nothing artificial is a good analogy, and mankind has never done this scent justice in imitating it. I could tell you to get yr butt out into the groves ASAP, but I realize that is easier said than done for most of y'all. Just trust me; it was one of those experiences that makes people from California feel special, or indeed, better than others. Yeah, Florida has oranges too, but if you spend enough time out and about in Cali, you get this sort of thing not just for oranges, but for so many different things, it really is tough to convey just how connected it makes you feel to the state. Maybe being a non-native I appreciate more than a native who knows nothing else would, but I actually have heard others go on about finding a place where nature is hitting all the senses with an astounding experience at once, and the smell is the one people seem to remember most strongly. It is just so atypical of life for so many of us.
And make no mistake, it wasn't just the awesome scent of the blossoms, but it was the beauty of the groves set against the foothills at the base of the still-snowy peaks of the Sierra. It is sensory overload. It is joy. It is why I go out every weekend and spend the other 5 days of the week in anticipation of the weekend to come, or replaying the weekend just-passed. For me, it literally hits the reset button on my brain and gives the soul a tune-up. God wants us to be happy.
Intoxicated by the nectar of the orange blossom, I headed out again south of town to continue my ATSF-line exploration when, almost immediately after leaving town, the good times came to a big-time halt: The line ended. Sniff. Sniff. Me being a city-rube, I thought I would just park the car and head into the grove to get a few nice pictures of whatever there was there to see. I walked in like I owned the place because I didn't think about what all those white boxes meant when the scent of the orange blossoms were thick in the air...BEES. Yessiree, there I was with camera up to my face, walking in closer to get a better shot of the end of the line when I picked up a lot of blurring around the sign. It wasn't until I heard the very distinct buzz of the bee in my ear that I realized that old farmer Fredo had his bees out doing the pollinating for the year, and I was walking up to the boxes where the swarm and their queen lived. I AM A GENIUS!!!
Naturally, I decided to get the heck out of there post-haste. I hopped in the auto, rolled-up the windows, and sat there for a bit to be extra sure I didn't have half the swarm in my car (a genius like me leaves windows down when it is excursion time!) Like a dumbass, I parked right in the middle of the grove and was hemmed in by some big old trees getting the bee-lovin'. Thankfully, I wasn't stung, and none of the bees got stuck in Black Bart with me (actually, I found one dead bee in the car when I got home.) Here is a tip for you kiddies: when approaching an unfamiliar situation, don't do it with a camera stuck to your face.
With the end of the ATSF line in Lindsay, I was now in position to actually catch up with the part of the old SP line to be abandoned, which is why I went out to begin with. While I was sitting there totally bummed that the ATSF line looked to be a dead-ender, what I saw in leaving town quickly turned my mood around.
As I mentioned, it was prime orange packing season in them parts, and in leaving town, I saw why the SJVRR wanted to keep the SP line far enough to make it into Lindsay. Basically, on the SP line sat a very large orange processing plant that was taking rail service. In fact, that place must be an f'ing GOLD MINE for the railroad based on what I saw south of town...miles of empty refrigerated reefer cars sitting in line waiting to be loaded up with oranges (these could have all been just surplus cars - in which case that line of cars was a CRAP MINE, but I digress.) I am not exaggerating even a little bit; the track outside south of town extended a good 3 or 4 miles until it hit the next little town, and other than a little space they left for a few country roads to cross the tracks, the entire length of the line was filled with reefers ready to go. I have never seen a line of empties that long, anywhere, ever. It was awesome. I only wish I had a camera with a real extendo lens - or maybe even a super-panoramic camera I could use from the middle. All the more interesting to me was the fact that the line itself was a single-track and there was no siding. These empties were sitting right on the through track just waiting. This was proof positive that the railroad had no cars or customers to the south, no matter how long the remaining track was; with so many empties being stored there, there would be no way to get anything in or out of the south end of the line at all. The SJVRR may not have had permission to rip the line up, or even abandon it, but for all intents and purposes, the line south of the reefers was out of service and waiting to be scrapped.
Usually a deduction like that would bug me, but the sheer size of that line-up of cars was another occasion on which I got a dump of pleasure chemicals across the brain. There was even a little afterglow after I passed the last of the cars. It was that good. Good. Very good. Very Very Good. Indeed. But I cannot say it was ULTRA good. I couldn't say that because I had yet to finish the last chapter on the doomed SJVRR line - a chapter I hotly anticipated, even amidst an overall sadness to the proceedings. If you look at the list of towns listed on the application for abandonment, a town called Ultra is listed as being along the line. I looked in my atlas to see where Ultra was, but I couldn't find it listed anywhere. I had to go to the SJVRR site itself to figure out that Ultra was the name of spur leading off the line to someplace that was given that name. I could find no town listed there, so I had no idea what to expect. It was named Ultra after all, so I knew it had to be something very awesome, even though I also knew that the line that far south was blocked and would have no trains on it. Indeed, by following the line for awhile, I eventually found where the little branch to Ultra began - luckily it headed east/northeast, which brought me towards the foothills once again.
The line itself was kinda cool. Again, it went across the land diagonally while the roads were in a grid, but I spotted some awesome little features along the way, not the least of which was this little trestle. Trestles are - as a rule - excellent.
Then, another addition to my semiotica for the day - another old Santa Fe Railroad sign! In fact, by finding a No Trespassing sign on the Ultra branch with the ATSF name on it, the old ATSF line I followed into the bee-boxes earlier started to make more sense. Earlier, the line ended as it was curving to the east-south/east, and it made total sense that the bee-infested line actually originally kept coming south all the way through Ultra and connected to the SP line where I found the beginning of the (now stub) track to Ultra. There once was a time when there were 2 lines run by 2 railroads which ran nearly side-by-side through that 20+ miles of orange grove country, but now, there was just a stub left at each end on the ATSF that was connected to the old SP. All of it was doomed save for the GOLD MINE LINE to Lindsay.
Truly, I was catching the last of something that once represented bare-knuckle commerce between two giants, each willing to fight each other for the business of every dirt-scratcher with a few orange trees. It likely hasn't been that way for decades, but there was at least something out here to keep those investments productive. Hell, they kept the Ultra spur open solely for the one orange packer in the picture up above. The packer gave up on the railroad line, and now the railroad has.
Not 10 feet past those loading docks, the tracks are gone! I can't blame the railroads totally. You can't expect them to maintain lines that long for one seasonal shipper who moves a handful of cars a year. If the shipper doesn't care, society needs to be pretty clever to come up with a reason to force SJVRR to keep the tracks in. SJVRR's parent company, RailAmerica (a holding company for short lines) perhaps could have jacked up the prices on this producer so high that he would move to shipping by truck so that they could make the case to the government that the line has no customers (they wouldn't be the first railroad to pull that little maneuver.) I don't know, so I can't say. However, if I may get preachy, we are now in a country paying $100 more a barrel for oil than we were 7 or 8 years ago! Trains move cargo much more efficiently than trucks, even when oil is cheaper. Once you pull up the tracks, they almost never come back. Railroads can use a thing called the Rail Bank to pull up tracks, stop paying property taxes, and abandon the line, but also retain the right to use it again if they want. That isn't what is happening here. When these 30 miles of rail are gone, they will be farmland again soon enough (I actually saw old rail grade turned into vineyard in a few spots out there.) I don't think it is wise to be ripping up any heavy infrastructure like this until we develop a sane energy policy. The land may seem worthless with old rusty rails on it, but imagine what it would cost to try buying it back! Ha! It will never happen. Usually this stuff doesn't dawn on people until the trucks start rolling down their street after the tracks are melted down. So it seems things will be in good ol' Ultra.
Actually, I am still not sure if Ultra is a real town, or was just the name of something that was once out there. I say "WAS once out there" because now, other than the orange packer, I literally only saw ONE commercial concern in the area:
I was thirsty, but I didn't stop.
Eventually, I made it out past the point where the line currently ends. The tracks had been pulled up at that point long ago, and I saw little out along the abandoned which would require their return. As is the case when big railroads sell to short lines, the line gets pulled up for a few miles, but then out of nowhere, it starts up again. It may be the same railroad using a different connection off the line, or maybe the big line ripped up the middle and sold the parts to two different companies. They do this to prevent any short line from buying up too much of the old lines and then going into the long-haul business in competition with the big railroad, on rails the big guys sold off. If you cut out the middle, there is no way to get it back - they know this. Once the line picked up again, I knew I was getting close to Bakersfield, which is where I was gonna put up for the night. When I got there, I saw a totally new business model in town which I KNOW could EASILY keep that old rail line open AND keep the big guy happy with all the business he can handle:
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Tomorrow, stellar weekend actually gets better on the ride home. Yes, there will be some train shit, but a minimum...I promise. Really.
Posted by rudayday at April 15, 2008 08:33 PM